Known conventional active ingredient(s) for keeping freshness of fruits and vegetables after being harvested include, as active ingredient(s) intended for keeping freshness of fruits and vegetables in general, e.g. organic or inorganic germanium (Patent Appln. Disclosure No. 293,338/86), biochemical energy source substances, such as sugar phosphate, amino acid phosphate, amidophosphate, hydroxy acid phosphate, adenosine phosphate, guanosine phosphate, creatine phosphate, etc. (JP-A-257,371/87), kojic acid (JP-A-198,372/87), extracts from Chlorella with hot water, and tocopherol and/or lecithin (JP-A-171,641/87), oligosaccharides (JP-A-214,120/88), vitamin C, salts of vitamin C and/or esters of vitamin C, and gallic acid, or its derivatives (JP-A-22,138/88) and, as active ingredient(s) intended for foods containing fruits and vegetables, lysozyme, ascorbic acid, glucose, and glucose oxidase (JP-A-143,672/87), chitin oligosaccharides, N-acetylglucosamine, glucosamine, salts of glucosamine and salts of chitosan (JP-A-39,569/88), hinokithiol included with cyclodextrin (JP-A-240,765/88), hexose phosphate ferrous salt, or divalent iron compound and hexose phosphate (JP-A-251,073/88) and, as active principles intended for fruits in general, calcium acetate and calcium lactate and/or sodium acetate (JP-A-143,635/87) and coffee bean cakes (JP-A-133,938/88) and, as active principles intended for strawberry, organic acids, such as malic acid, tartaric acid, etc. and lactose, sucrose, etc. (JP-A-41,255/77) and, as active principles intended for pear, basic amino acids and vitamin C (Japanese Patent Publication No. 6,341/80) and, as an active principle intended for pineapple, gibberellin (JP-A-231,944/86).
On the other hand, known active principles for keeping freshness of cut flowers include, e.g. silver thiosulfate, aluminum sulfate, 8-hydroxyquinoline sulfate, sugar, etc. (Nosanbutsu Ryutsu Gijyutsu Nenpo (Annual Report of Distribution Techniques for Agricultural Products), pp. 110-112 (1987)) and, as active principles intended for rose, metabolic sugars and phosphonic acids (JP-A-61,401/89), di-or trivalent basic organic carboxylic acids, and alkali salts thereof (JP-A-131,847/74), kinetin and 6-benzyladenine, which are a substance possessing a cytokinin activity (Science, 125 650-651, 1957, Plant & Cell Physiology 7 705-706, 1966, Hortscience 8 496-497, 1973), antiseptic/disinfectant (boric acid, chloride of lime, benzoic acid, salicylic acid, sorbic acid, dehydroacetic acid, propionic acid, isocyanuric acid, chlorous acid, hypochlorous acid, paraoxybenzoic acid, and esters thereof, lauryl trimethyl ammonium-2,4,5-trichloro-carbonilide, tribromosalicylateanilide, 3,4,4'-trichlorocarbonilide, hexachlorophene, bithionol, chloramine T, chloramine B halazon, etc.), nitrogen-containing compounds (urea, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, ammonium carbamate, guanidine, alanine, glycine, chlorophyll, sodium nitrilo triacetate, etc.), phosphorus-containing compounds (polyphosphates, such as sodium tripolyphosphate, potassium pyrophosphate etc., and orthophosphate salts, such as monobasic sodium, monobasic potassium, monoammonium and dibasic sodium, dibasic potassium, and diammonium hydrogen phosphates, etc.), surface-active agents (anionic, cationic, or nonionic surface-active agents), inorganic builders (sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate, ammonium carbonate, potassium sulfate, etc.), organic builders (citric acid, succinic acid, malic acid, tartaric acid, and gluconic acid and sodium salts thereof, potassium salts thereof, ammonium salts thereof, etc.), solvents (monovalent or polyvalent lower alcohols, such as ethanol, propylene glycol, glycerol, etc.) (JP-A-24,750/74), 2-pyridinethiol-1-oxide (JP-A-98,001/84), ascorbic acid, isoascorbic acid, tryptophan, and thiourea (USP 3,320,046), kojic acid (JP-A-198,372/87), polylysine or its salts (JP-A-169,701/87), gallic acid or its derivatives (JP-A-22,138/88), and coffee bean cakes (JP-A-133,938/88).
At present, as preservatives for cut flowers, there is also customarily employed the preservative whose active ingredient(s) is silver thiosulfate. However, the problem of environmental pollution is worrisome, because silver included in the agents is a heavy metal. In addition, flowers to which the agents are effectively applied are limited to some types of flowers, such as carnation. Therefore, recently the development of a preservative demonstrating general effects which does not contain heavy metals has been desired.
There is known a case where cis-propenylphosphonic acid was employed as a synthetic precursor of phosphomycin which is one of antibiotics (J. of Organic Chemistry 35 3510-3512, 1970). In addition, it is a known case that 2,5-norbornadiene and cis-2-butene which are structural analogues of the cis-olefin compounds represented by the general formula (I) were used as materials for the study on plant-aging (Phytochemistry 23 2765-2768, 1984, PHYSIOLOGIA PLANTARUM 63 114-120, 1985). These compounds are in the form of gas at normal temperature under normal pressure, so that they are not practical.
The N-(2-chloro-4-pyridyl)ureas represented by the general formula (II) were developed as a synthetic plant hormone having a cytokinin activity and are known to show an excellent effect as a plant growth regulator (Patent Publication No. 16,104/82). In the past and present, these substances have been employed as agricultural chemicals for agriculture as well as gardening. Phosphomycin, one of the epoxy compounds represented by the general formula (III), is known in general as an antibiotic (Science, 166, 122, 1969), and already available on the market.
Dipicolinic acid and its derivatives have been employed as, e.g. a leaf-falling promoter (Patent Publication No. 44,858/73).
The object of the present invention provides preservative which show the excellent effects on plants after being harvested.